EP#98: Second Annual MacroFab Star Wars Christmas Special: Jar Jar on a Harley

• Taylor Smith
  • Works at MacroFab as the Production Account Manager
  • Manage all of our large customers as they go through prototyping to full production
  • Graduated from Texas A&M last fall
  • Joined the MacroFam early this year
• Favorite Star Wars Character?
  • Organic 
    • Taylor: Loves the locks on Qui-Gon Jinn
    • Stephen: Bossk
    • Parker: Storm Trooper #38
  •  Robotic 
    • Taylor: R2D2 even though he slept through Rogue One
    • Stephen: IG-88
    • Parker: Not K-2SO
  • Thrawn Books
• Tech that stood out in Rogue One
  • Data Storage Devices 
    • Three different storage methods 
      • USB Flash Drive: small amount of data.
      • Data Tape: looks like an external hard drive. Contains Death Star plans. 
        • 8-track tapes style
      • Some sort of other kind of storage device that the plans get transfered to 
        • Looks solid state
        • Newer format then the empire’s data tape?
      • Why doesn’t C3-PO have a wireless transmitter built in?!
    • There does not seem to be a ton of wireless communication 
      • No Drop Box
      • Most radio transmission seems to be analog in nature
      • Trans-intergalactic data system
      • Star wars servers
    • Data Tapes stored in giant rooms which require physical access by manually manipulating robot arms
  • Transmission of data 
    • Besides radio there seems to be a distinct lack of wireless transmissions in StarWars.
    • To transfer Death Star plans they needed a giant dish.
    • No digital communication over RF?
    • No lag with hologram communication via hyperspace 
      • Analog data travel through hyperspace? 
  • Death Star plans data size? 
    • 160km in diameter: 1.72×10^16m cubed
    • Couldn’t find engineering drawings for an aircraft carrier
    • 3D file for a building would be around ~100MB but probably 300MB looking at solidworks stuff
    • 900m cubed area goes into a death star 19,111,111,111,111.111 times trillion
    • 5,733,333.333 (5.7million) petabytes
  • Solar freaking laser roads
  • No hacking in Star Wars 
    • Reason similar to Battlestar Gallactica?
  • Death Star accuracy 
    • Hitting the top of the tower a the end of Rogue One
    • See images for maths and figures
    • Scott Manley: Death Star Orbit from Planet Surface
• CGI Tarkins and Leia in Rogue One: Future for The Last Jedi and other Star Wars movies
  • Will we see CGI Carrie Fisher? 
    • Parker hopes she won’t die off-screen
    • Taylor thinks there will be a nice parting gift for her
    • Stephen thinks they’re going to kill all of the old cast (including Mark Hamill)

Tags: electronics podcast, IoT, MacroFab, macrofab engineering podcast, MEP, Podcast, Rogue One, Star Wars, Star Wars Christmas Special